I’m planning on a few schooling shows that are having classes for WD. Looking forward to moving up from intro to basic. Yep, that’s right…gonna lope this year. 
I’ve loped/cantered for decades. Now I’m ready to do it in the dressage ring.
Awesome!
We’ve been working on it as something new. I’d like to do a few schooling shows, but holy heck, the one offered around here is hella expensive.
Sure having a blast learning tho! We rode one of the lope tests in lessons a few weeks ago and I really enjoyed it. 
Me, me, me!
We are really and truly loping this year, after two years of really struggling with that gait. We are going to show Intro 4, Basic 1, and Basic 2 to start and then hopefully do Basic 3 and drop Intro 4 later in the year. I am pretty nervous about that much canter at a show as she is a naturally lazy horse that runs out of oomf quickly. I have been trying to up our fitness at home.
I also signed up for a Basic level year end award with my GMO and our breed organization. I also have the goal of doing a full USDF show this year. Talk about putting on the pressure!
I do blog about all of our adventures in western dressage here: https://draftmare.wordpress.com/
I’m doing intro 4 and basic 1 at my May 15 show.
Mine is the opposite of yours, loping gets him kind of jazzed. Last night we had the best lopes ever…even got some self carriage! It was wonderful. And he didn’t get jazzed so it might have been a strength issue. I’ve been struggling with the gait for years. I’m finally starting to get it and he’s rewarding me handsomely!
She can get a little jazz after we lope. We are struggling a bit with not flailing all over the place when we come down from the lope in our tests. A little over a year ago I couldn’t get her to lope at all, so I am super happy about where we are. I didn’t think I would ever make it out of Intro level. Overall though, energy is our biggest weakness. Part of the reason we switched to western dressage is that she couldn’t get/maintain that powerful forward walk and trot they want in classical dressage. The slower more collected pace of western dressage suits her much better.
It takes a lot of strength in the hind end and back legs to keep it all together. Think of the strengthening needed for upper level dressage. It’s that kind of strength and that takes time and conditioning. After 1 1 /2 years with the indoor arena, consistent footing and regular work 3-4 times a week, he is just now getting to where he can do the work.
It’s great that Sydney have improved over the last year. You’ll get even more this next year. And once the basic strength get there, you’ll improve more quickly. The foundation takes a lot of time. I had no idea how little work I was getting done when I had to ride outside on a sort of groomed pasture with bump, wear trenches and gopher holes plus sporadically depending on the weather.
